they had railroads that were segregated
In the Plessy decision, the Supreme Court ruled that such segregation did not violate the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
14th amendment
The Supreme Court found that the 14th Amendment did not prevent individuals, as opposed to states, from practicing discrimination. And in Plessy v. Ferguson the Court found that "separate but equal" public accommodations for African Americans, such as trains and restaurants, did not violate their rights.
The county unit system violated the 14th amendment.
The 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law, was a central part of the legal argument in Plessy v. Ferguson. However, in a controversial decision, the Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated facilities were constitutional as long as they were "separate but equal." This ruling upheld racial segregation for many decades, until it was overturned by the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education.
None, however, bans on gay marriage violate the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.
The 14th amendment was created during the Reconstruction Era of the United States. The amendment was meant to protect US citizenship rights as well as enforce equal protection of laws. By nature, segregation of race in schools violated this amendment.
The 14th Amendment to the U.S Constitution enforces federal law, including the Bill of Rights, on the state governments. However, before the 14th Amendment, states did have the ability to "violate" the rights of their citizens.
The 14th Amendment restricts the actions of states by preventing them from making or enforcing laws that violate citizen rights. This protection is guaranteed by the Equal Protection Clause within the amendment.
According to the Supreme Court (in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas), segregation violates the 14th Amendment, which says, in part:"No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens... nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."This decision reversed the 1896 decision of Plessy v. Ferguson which ruled that 'seperate but equal' was not a violation. IN the Brown decision, the justices wrote that "seperate is inherently unequal", and therefore it did violate the 14th Amendment.
The 14th amendment clearly states that the government cannot discriminate based on race (and anti-discrimination laws prevent the average citizen from legally discriminating). Plessy vs Ferguson stated that segregated schools were constitutional if they were "Equal" ("Separate but equal" was the saying used in the verdict). Brown vs The Board of Education reversed that decision, making segregation unconstitutional.
Because before the first case of Plessy V. Ferguson, the 14th amendment was in place, yet schools (and public transportation) were segregated. After the last case of Brown v. Board of Education, schools (and eventually other things as well) were no longer segregated and black people and white people could learn together.